Ronald Weasley and the American Werewolves
by betR2bewierd
Summary: After 5th year, Ron has been accepted into an exchange program to an independent school for magic in the United States. A school specifically designed for werewolves and other students outside traditional education. Feeling lost after the battle at the ministry. He's hoping to 'find himself' on an adventure all his own.
1. The acceptance Letter

Ron's eyes flew open and his entire body jolted. He gasped and sputtered as he sat up and tried to figure out where he was. Light filtered in through a single small window in the roof of his attic bedroom, little dust specs flew around gently in the beam of light. His posters, books, and other miscellaneous belongings scattered around the room, all placed exactly as he left it. Ron took deep breathes as he waited for his heart to stop pounding, then flopped onto his back once more. The pillow was damp with sweat underneath his neck, so he turned it over and thought of the images that had been plaguing his dreams. A blue room smeared with lines of light spinning past his vision. Silvers masks with slitted eyes, a room with scaled planets floating in darkness, and those _fucking brains_.

He lifted his right arm up to examine it. A wide and noticeable white scar wrapped around his whole arm like a ribbon, reaching all the way to his chest. On his left arm was a mark that matched. He was pale, so he had hoped that when the scars turned white, they wouldn't stand out so much. But the freckle-less scar tissue practically glowed next to his normal skin.

Deciding he was not going to get anymore sleep, Ron thought he should get up out of bed and make himself presentable, like a real productive person.

That quickly made plan just as quickly flew out the window. There was a line at the bathroom which included both his sister and soon to be sister in law. Fluer smiled at him and wished him a good morning in her thick sweet accent, but had a look in eyes that said she would fight him if he dared tried to get between her and her shower. Not ready to interact with anyone yet, he went back up to his bedroom and laid down again, not bothering to change from his tank top and pajama pants.

The end of fifth year had been beyond overwhelming. The O.W.L.s should have been enough. But then the stuff with Dumbledore's Army happened, and the battle at the department of mysteries...he hadn't yet admitted to anyone but himself how badly scared he was of the inevitable danger. Even with all Harry's teachings, he felt terribly unprepared, and his performance at the battle at the Ministry proved as much. It was a miracle that none of his school friends had died. Since coming home, it was all he could think about, how easily things could have been worse had the Order not shown up when they did.

His mind drifted were it often did when he was feeling bored and self-piteous. To his ideal girlfriend, existing only in his mind, who would be comforting him now if she existed with cuddles and supporting words. Not in the overly bearing way his mother would, or the fed up unsympathetic way his friends often did, but a perfect balance that only a human in a fantasy could. An image of Hermonie briefly entered his mind. _Never happening_. He deflated a little more.

On top of it all, he felt guilty. Because no matter how awful he felt, how strained and anxious and lonely, Harry was probably having a much harder time.

Sirius was dead, and Harry was off to live with those awful muggles again. Ron remembered earlier that year when he thought his dad might die, and his stomach clenched. Thank Merlin for that at least...But how long would they continue getting lucky? Would somebody else in his family die next?

He remembered Hermione's comment about him having the emotional range of a teaspoon. Maybe he could sympathize with Cho more these days. But at least he wasn't crying all the damn time.

But Harry had not spoken to him since then. After the first few unanswered letters, Ron had stopped trying to reach him. Maybe his friend just preferred to mourn alone. But Ron couldn't help but stress at the absence of communication. Maybe he was angry with him, since Ron had been a useless idiot during the battle at the Department of Mysteries. Getting hit in the head by that unknown spell, then falling over himself and giggling at the plant Uranus. Injuring himself by summoning the brain. The memories made him burn with shame.

He was interrupted from self loathing by the shrill scream of his mother. "RONALD! L-LETTER!"

Well, she sounded strangely startled about something simple like post. He sprang out of bed and rushed down the attic latter. He realized why when he got to the kitchen.

There was a massive bloody bald eagle perched on a chair at the table. A letter it had just dropped laid in from of it, with his name on it. Bald eagles were not native to England, or the eastern hemisphere for that matter. Ron had never seen one that wasn't in a picture. Merlin he never realized exactly how big they were. He stared at it in frozen shock and the eagle stared back, mildly annoyed. It cawed at him, and the noise made both Ron and his mother jump in surprise. The noise was almost as shocking and impressive as the sight of it. The large bird continued to stare at him.

"I think it wants you to open the letter." His mother said.

"Oh! right..." He cautiously reached for the letter. He didn't think the bird would attack him, but if it did it could probably take a finger. Ginny wondered in to see what the commotion was, fresh-faced and clean from from her shower.

The front of the letter spelled out his full name and address, _'Ronald Bilius Weasley, The Burrow, England'_ and the back had a fancy blue wax seal with a crest he didn't recognize. He slowly began to remember something from almost a year ago, that had been forgotten in the chaos of his last school year.

"What is it?" Mrs. Weasley asked. Ron cracked the seal and pulled out a letter.

" ' _We are happy to inform you that your request for the student exchange program at Guadalupe school of magic has been accepted'_ " He read aloud, " I applied at the beginning of last August, and completely forgot."

"Oh my, Ron! Congratulations!" She beamed and hugged him, kissing his forehead. But she couldn't completely hide her underlying expression of concern.

 _She's thinking we can't afford this_. Thought Ron. Bill had already had to pass up a similar opportunity to go to Castelobruxo because of the family's financial situation. Ron continued to read the rest of the letter out loud.

" _Guadalupe school of magic is an alternative education facility originally founded for students afflicted with lycanthropy. It has since then expanded to include many kinds of students to whom do not fit in the traditional system for magical education, or otherwise chose not to attend a traditional school. There is still a large population of students with lycanthropy, so if you wish to accept this exchange opportunity you will be required to vow not reveal the identity of any student or their lycanthropic status to any other person or body of government without their consent. Guadalupe takes the safety and security of its students very seriously and there are consequences should you decide to betray that sense of safety. With that in mind, If you accept this opportunity, please send a response with Aetius, the eagle who delivered your letter within three days. Meanwhile he will likely find the nearest body of water to go hunting in-_ " Aetius had already taken off out through the window. " _All expenses will be covered by the program-"_ He saw his mother visibly relax _. " Including uniform, books, supplies, travel, etc. Please let us know of any specific needs for your lodging and an international portkey will be delivered to you shortly._ " Ron finished and laid the letter down on the table.

"Whoa," Ginny said. "Are you gonna go?"

"Dunno," Ron responded simply.

"Well, I understand if you don't want to leave your friends. But now would be the time to make some foreign allies, which is what programs like this are partially about." His mother said. "It would be a good opportunity" She added.

He sat down at the table with the letter in front of him. His friends. Shit. He thought of battle at the ministry, of Harry's unhesitating bravery and Hermione's unrivaled mind. His own uselessness. No doubt, they could survive just one year without him. But would they be angry about it? Think he was abandoning them? Voldemort had just returned...

But this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, And none of his brothers had ever gotten the chance to study abroad, maybe he'd finally have something that was just his, and maybe he learn something that would make him more useful in the approaching war. He envisioned himself coming back at the end of the year, transformed into a teammate of equal skill to his two best friends. Someone with an air of coolness and confidence that drew people in. It was silly, but one can dream.

"Yeah, Alright, I think I'll do it."

* * *

Later that night Ron sat down to write his response letter. Not completely sure how formal he was suppose to be, or who he was actually writing to, he ended up writing an awkward:

Yes, I'd love to attend your school this year. I accept the vow and promise not to tell anybody about who is and isn't a werewolf.

-Ronald Weasley

He sent it off before he could stress too much and rewrite it again. If he did that he might never respond in time. Aetius had appeared in the kitchen almost immediately when he finished the letter, and took off with it without so much as a second glance at Ron.

The Response appeared just a few days later. The large eagle, now a familiar sight, perched on the back of a chair at the kitchen table. Two envelopes placed in front of it this time. One looked exactly as the previous one did, with his name in neat fancy writing and a blue seal. The other just said "Ron" scrawled in round, bubbly handwritten letters.

He read the formal one first.

 _Ronald Bilius Weasley_

 _We're happy to hear you will be joining us for our next school year. In one week, Aetius will drop off an approved international portkey that will activate at exactly 7:00 am your time on the 10th of June. You will arrive at a tourist destination called Colter Bay Village. There will be No-Maj, or muggles as you call them nearby so we ask that you do not perform any magic, and dress inconspicuously. Two of our most esteemed students will meet you there and lead you to the school's entrance. Have a good rest of the summer._

A small jolt of panic shot through his chest. A week? The school year wasn't suppose to begin for months. Why did they want him to travel over so soon? He was hoping he'd have some time to figure out how to tell Hermione and Harry that he'd be leaving them for a whole year. He took a deep breath, and opened the second letter.

Hi Ronald

My name is Tony, I'm one of the "esteemed" students that will be meeting you in Colter Bay. I'm in our school Young Leaders program along with Joshua, who you'll also be meeting soon. Thought I'd send this letter so that you could get to know me a little bit before you pop on over. What did you think of the bird? I think it's hilariously overdone, like, we might as well have enchanted the envelope so that little fireworks forming a star spangled banner would come out when opened. I was very tempted to try it with my own letter but Josh convinced me not to. You should thank him. And I also wanted to warn you that we will be hiking in order to get to the school, so pack lightly! Me and Joshua are going to be bringing snacks and drink so don't worry too much, you'll make it. As you know, Guadalupe was originally founded for kids with lycanthropy and has since expanded to other kinds of students who just couldn't get traditional education. I wanted to let you know, I'm a werewolf, but Joshua is not. With that aside, I love dancing, coffee, long walks on the beach and ripping out the throats of my enemies. I look forward to getting to know you better.

I'm kidding, see you soon!

-Tony

Ron stared at that last line. Unsure how to feel. At least this bloke had a sense of humor? He was starting to wonder if he had made a mistake. But it was too late to back out now.

* * *

Ron awoke on the morning of his departure the same way he'd woken up a week ago, anxious, heart pounding, with images of vague nightmares fading away in the morning light. He was still exhausted, but couldn't go back asleep weather from excitement of leaving for a new country or stress that his dreams had been causing. He sat up in bed but made no move to get up and do anything. His bag was already packed and sitting next to the door. It contained just a few muggle outfits, since he would be getting a uniform upon arrival, a cauldron (collapsed, currently), and some muffins his mom had baked. He'd taken Tony's warning to heart and packed very little. He wasn't bringing his broom. But only because his mom promised to send it over after he got there. He didn't care if he wasn't playing quidditch, he wasn't letting go of his new broom.

Pig was not going with him. The little owl would not be able to cross the ocean to send Ron's letters. He could barely believe that Aetius did. He thought of bringing him for the company anyways, but owls got bored without a job to do. So after sending a few final letters for Ron, Pig would stay with Ginny. Ron had sent Hermione a letter almost as soon as he had finished reading Tony's. He'd hoped she'd be a bit more encouraging, or less likely to hate him than Harry.

He was right. Her response was supportive, and he even thought he might has suspected a hint of jealousy. He knew he shouldn't but he kind of liked that the tables were turned. Somebody was jealous of something he had. The feeling went away when he remembered that she probably deserved it more. Maybe if he got the chance, he would ask the headmistress to consider Hermione as a candidate next time.

Dear Ron

That's amazing! I would have loved the opportunity to do something like this. Not only could it broaden your mind and expose you to wizard culture outside of Europe, It's a really good chance to make foreign allies. I've read about Guadalupe and while there's not a lot of solid information on it. I do know that the headmistress there, Anais Renaissance is a friend of Dumbledore's. Apparently she got a lot of backlash for founding a school just for werewolves, and Dumbledore is one of the few that support her. Seems that most governments, especially our Ministry is against letting werewolves gather like that because of the whole business with Fenrir. Maybe they think she's creating an army of werewolves to overthrow Congress. Just like Dumbledore was supposedly building an army of students? Anyways, you must keep me updated on everything you learn over there. I wonder if they offer classes there that Hogwarts doesn't?

-Hermione

He procrastinated writing to Harry until the last minute. Not knowing where they stood in their friendship currently made Ron weary. He knew if he didn't send a letter, that if Harry had to hear it from Hermione, it would be a disaster. If last summer taught Ron anything, it's that Harry hated being kept in the dark. Which is why it was a little hypocritical for him to be doing it to Ron, but whatever. The letter ended up being extremely short, and hastiness extremely evident.

Dear Harry

I got accepted into an Exchange program. I'm going to America for the whole school year. I'll write, hopefully you'll write me back. See you at Christmas.

-Ron

He sent it off last night right before bed. Now, with just an hour or so before he was due to touch the portkey, it looked like he wouldn't get a response. Which was fine, he didn't want to know what Harry thought of this at this point.

He got up showered without resistance since the rest of the house was asleep. Then had a minor crisis about what to wear when he arrived. He sort of wanted something that covered the scars on his arms, but it was June, and he heard America was much hotter than England. Most of his muggle clothing was exactly like the rest of his wardrobe, hand-me-downs with holes, stains of forgotten origin and faded colors. He put on his favorite T-shirt. It was light orange with white letters that spelled out some tourist spot he'd never visited. It was faded, but had no stains or holes, and the cloth was soft and breezy. With jeans, he had a choice between too short or rips on the knees. He chose rips on the knees.

There would be no making a first impression that didn't scream obvious poverty. Oh well, might as well get that over with right upon arrival. Everything in the open, scars, money, he'd find out sooner than later what kind of people he was dealing with.

He went downstairs to find his mother cooking pancakes. She was busting with pride and giddiness. She showered him in kisses and praise and Ron found himself glad the twins were not present. His father was there, he simply gave Ron an encouraging smile and sat down to eat with him. Ron ate pancakes until he felt sick, then sat at the table tapping his fingers in anxiousness. His head hurt, and the lack of sleep had his body feeling weak and achy. Ginny did not make an appearance, and Ron pretended that he didn't care.

Aetius the Eagle appeared suddenly with a cracked coffee mug. Dropping it on the table as he had done with the letters. He eyed Ron and waited. Ron had started thinking of the bird as a very irritated and impatient teacher. "OK, ok, I know, I'm ready. See?" The hoisted his bag over his shoulder. Aetius looked unimpressed.

With just a minute left on the clock, his father said, arm around his wife, "We love you son. I'm proud of you." Ron felt his chest fill up with warmth, and thanked Merlin again that his dad was still here.

"We'll see you at Christmas!" His mother added, teary eyed.

"Thanks, I'm..." He tried to think of what say, that would sounds genuine.

The coffee mug started to glow.

"I love you too!" He got out quickly and grabbed the portkey.

* * *

When Ron landed, the first thing he noticed was that he seemed to be in a room at some sort of inn. The second thing he noticed was the girl, sitting on the edge of one of two double beds. She had beautiful light green eyes, which were looking at him with a sense of surprise. Her skin was a shade or two darker than terracotta, and dark tight curls framed her face and tumbled down well past her shoulders to her mid back. She was wearing short, pink striped pajama pants and a black t-shirt.

Oh no, no, oh fuck! Just a few seconds after reaching arriving in America and he'd already done something inexplicably magical in front of a muggle. What kind of international trial would he face for this? His dad- it was the flying car incident all over again. Why would the portkey send him-?

"Joshua!" The girl suddenly shouted, cutting through Ron's silent panic attack. A boy popped his head into the room from a door in the back. He had a toothbrush in his mouth and toothpaste on his lips. His hair was light brown and disheveled, a bit longer on the top then the sides. His skin was light and clear, and he had a squared jaw.

"He's here!" She turned back to him. "Hi, Ronald, I'm Tony." She smiled brilliantly.

* * *

 **AN: Please read an review guys, this is only my second fic.**


	2. The first Trial

" _You're_ Tony?" Ron stood there, mouth slightly agape. He'd pictured a boy his age, vaguely Italian looking and somewhat nerdy. Not a curvy black girl in short shorts. She didn't seem the least bit concerned with his confusion as she stood up in front of him, head cocked, examining him without bothering to be subtle. She was probably more than a foot shorter than him. She had the look of someone who would have had a decent amount of babyfat, but was so athletic they came out more stocky. Hints of biceps on her brown arms stood out as she put her hands on her hips. Her pale greens eyes flicked over his outfit, his scars, then met his own eyes. Then she smiled wide.

"Yeah, it's short for Antonia, and that's Josh." She nodded her head over to the brunette boy, who was walking out of the bathroom now. He wore a plain white tank top which showed off muscular arms, and loose grey sweatpants. He lifted his hand in a lazy greeting then hopped on the second bed.

The room was decorated in rustic style, with wood paneling on the walls, dark wood floors, and rugs all in brown, beige and red color schemes. The furniture was all wood too, the same color as the walls, which gave the place a cramped barn feeling. The comforters on the two beds were a dark pine green. The large window near the door had it's curtain mostly drawn, but a sliver of the outside world peaked through at the edge, and it was obviously nighttime.

"You left at what, 7am? It's 12am here, so you basically lost a day." Tony said, following his line of sight.

"Wait, so it's June 11th now?"

"Yup." She emphasized her consonants in the weird way Americans did, skipping over the u sound and ending the word in a hard _puh_. Then, straightening her back and lifting her chin, she announced in a mock formal voice. "On behalf of Guadalupe, we welcome you to our school and to America." She waived her hand in a broad sweep, as if to present a grand and magnificent sight.

"Right... thanks." Answered Ron. Tony laughed at his response, then continued, "I know you're probably not too tired since its still morning to you, but you should try to get some rest before we go hiking in eight hours. You can sleep on that bed with him-" She gestured to the boy again, who gave a small friendly smile.

"-Or you can grab a blanket and sleep on the floor. Whatever." She shrugged. Ron nodded absently.

"Until then," Josh began, "Why don't you sit and tell us about yourself."

"Um..." The ackward feeling Ron had had since he arrived hit it's peak. He was alone in a hotel room with two strangers, one of which was nearly half naked.

"Yeah, like, what made you want to come to a school for werewolves? I honestly wasn't expecting a transfer from Europe." Tony asked. "I always got the feeling they hated us more over there than they do here, and they really hate us here." She didn't sound the least bit bitter as she said this, just very factual, as if she had said water was wet. She sat back down on the bed close to the door. Ron decided to sit the edge of the bed that Josh was laying down on.

"Well, one of my professors was a werewolf, hes a pretty nice bloke, and he was the best Defense teacher we ever had."

"Was?" Josh asked.

"He lost the job when word got around of what he was." Ron decided to leave out the part about Lupin nearly attacking him and his friends. It was a long story and he didn't feel like talking about Harry and Sirius.

"Hm, guess my impression was right then." Tony said, looking somber. Then, she seemed to decide that they needed to change the subject.

"You look like you at least know how to dress for a hike in no-maj territory. I've heard stories about crazy shit british wizards wear when they try to look like no-majs." Said Tony, scooting back on her own bed while crossing her legs, tucking her feet under her knees. Ron remembered the quidditch world cup. He hadn't been expecting his outfit choice to earn him any compliments. But he had the feeling that a lot of unexpected things were going to be happening on this trip. "Is it a long hike?" He asked.

"Takes a few days. 'less you're fit, most our applicants are not." Tony answered. Ron was confused for a moment before he remembered that 'fit' probably didn't mean the same thing here.

"Don't worry, you'll make it." Josh offered. Ron appreciated the confidence in him, but he didn't share the sentiment.

"Is that why they wanted me to come over so early?" Even if the hike itself took a whole week, he was still about two months early to the school year.

"Guadalupe runs all year round. A lot of the werewolf students don't really have anywhere to go during the summer, and we can't exactly kick em out and leave them high and dry without any wolfsbane. That's asking for an accident." Tony explained. "But I guess they want you here early because the tests to find your classification can take a pretty long time."

"Classification...?"

"Know anything about karate?" Josh asked, and Ron just stared back at him. "Ok, well, when you start out a novice, a white belt, and when you get better you graduate to yellow belt, then orange, purple, and when you know everything their is to know about karate, you get a black belt. Yeah?" Ron nodded, but wasn't completely sure if he understood.

"Well, you'll be tested, to see if your yellow or purple, or whatever, then they know what classes to put you in." He said. "Lots of the students there didn't get to start their magical education when they were 11, so it doesn't make sense to group students based on age. We do it by skill level instead."

"So I might end up in classes with eleven year olds?" Ron asked. He wasn't the best student. In certain subjects, his skills could very well place him with kids several years younger. He also wondered what they would do with Hermione if she took those tests, they'd probably have to invent an entire category for her.

"Yeah, most classes have a pretty broad mix of ages." Tony said. "But Hogwarts is a pretty good school right? I doubt you'll end up in the bottom tier of anything." She pulled her hair over her should and began to braid it.

"Tell us about Hogwarts. It has houses just like Ilvermorny right?" Both Tony and Josh watched him with interest. He figgited a bit with his hands.

"Yeah." He said "I'm in Gryffindor." He didn't feel like a Gryffindor right now.

"That ones for bravery, right?" Josh asked. Ron just nodded. He told them a bit about the sorting ceromony, the hat's song, and Dumbledore. They continued lisening with keen interest. When he paused, not coming up with anything else interesting to say, Tony supplied him with with a little information about Guadalupe.

"It's such a young school. Only been open officialy for about 10 years, but we already have rouphly 150 students. Not a lot by the standards of Ilvermorny or Hogwarts. But it really freaked MACUSA out. We had like 5 werewolves in the first year, 30 in the second, and then 100. MACUSA didn't even know that many werewolves were in they're country." Tony was smiling as if the thought was funny to her.

"But I guess Ms. Renaissance just has a way with making us feel safe. She's wasn't affiliated with the government and refuses to be now. She makes everyone take vows against giving away each others identities, so only we can choose to out ourselves. She has such a powerful presence. It's really inspiring." Tony seemed to glow when she spoke about her school, and her headmistress. Ron found himself watching her and listening as keenly as they had to him.

"When did they start letting non-werewolvs in?" Ron asked.

"About five years ago." Josh answered. "Although, I think Dawn was here before then?" He looked over to Tony for confirmation.

"Yeah, Dawn's sister is a werewolf but she isn't, they came here together because they refused to separate. So I guess that makes Dawn the first student admitted who didn't have lycanthropy. " Said Tony, looking thoughtful.

"Anyways, we got to be up bright an early. So we should try to go sleep." She said after a moment, then crawled under the blanket.

Ron changed into his pajamas in the bathroom, and folded up his jeans and T-shirt. He'd barely worn them for a few hours, so he could probably wear them again tomorrow, or today...when the sun came up.

He chose to share the bed with Josh, which seemed a bit awkward, but Josh didn't even blink when he climbed in. Ron had shared beds with various brothers throughout his life as his big family expanded, shrank, and traded rooms around the house. Being the youngest boy, he was also usually the first to be shacked with cousins whenever the extended Weasley clan had a get together.

But the bed was large. Josh turned his back to Ron, and Ron had plenty of space to himself. Maybe it was the lack of sleep lately, or having woke up that morning at the crack of dawn. But despite having just gotten out of bed a few hours ago, Ron was tired, and he fell asleep withing minutes.

* * *

It was still dark when Ron awoke, but he could hear birds chirping outside signaling the imminent arrival of the sun. He laid still and listened to the rythmic breathing of his room mates. He turned to look at Josh, who had rolled onto his back at some point. His face serenely facing the ceiling, lips parted slightly.

Last night Ron had hadn't looked at Josh too closely. He'd been too distracted by Tony's magnetism and somewhat exotic appearance. But now up close he could see that the boy was pale, although not as pale as Ron. His skin looked clear of any freckle or blemish. He didn't even have dark spots under eyes. He had a square set jaw, high cheekbones and long brown lashes that matched his hair.

His shoulder almost touched Ron's, their bodies made the covers especially warm in the surprisingly cool summer morning, and Ron found he didn't mind the proximity too much. Maybe because Josh was sleeping, so Ron didn't have to fret about how he must have appeared at that moment, enjoying in the presence of a boy in bed with him.

Ron banished the thought quickly.

He slid out of the warm blankets into the cool air, used the bathroom and changed into his ripped jeans and t-shirt once more. He decided to sit outside, where any noise he made wouldn't bother Antonia and Josh, and eat the muffins his mother had packed. The view when he opened the door almost floored him. The sun had just made it's appearance, reflecting off a large lake That their lodge faced. surrounding the lake were tall, densely packed pine trees. Mountains stretched the entire distance of the horizon, larger than life and peaked with snow. It suddenly struck him why it was so cold. They were probably at a decently high altitude, and he was wearing short sleeves. He sat down next to the door to enjoy his muffins and the view.

Despite how early it was, he soon saw muggles, in little boats out on the lake, propelling themselves with long paddles. A few also walked by him, coming from they're own cabins and headed off to do whatever muggles did here. They politly greeted him as they walked by, but thankfully none had tried to have a real conversation.

A little while later the door opened and Josh stepped out. "Oh good, you didn't wander off."

He stepped out, wearing dark jeans, boots that were worn and scuffed, and a long sleeved shirt rolled up to the elbows. His backpack on and ready to go.

"Where are we?" Asked Ron. Sweeping his arm to indicate the view in front of them.

"Wyoming. Specifically, south of Yellowstone park. You cold?"

"Yeah."

"You'll warm up later when we start walking, but I gotta jacket you can borrow for now," Ron noticed that Josh didn't emphasize his consonants as much as Tony did, and he spoke a pace or to slower.

"Thanks... want a muffin?" Ron asked, holding one up.

"What kind?"

"Lemon poppyseed."

"Hell yeah!" Josh reached for the muffin and brought it up to his face to take a big bite. Just then, Tony walked out of the room with Ron's bag, her own already slung over her shoulders.

"Anything else before we head off?" She asked the boys, handing Ron his bag.

"Naw." Josh said with his mouthful.

"What you eatin?" She asked.

"Muffins, want one? My mum made them." He cringed a bit as he said it. He should have just said they were good. He held a muffin up to her and pretended not to be embarrassed.

"Ooh! Thanks." She said as she took it. She started walking away while eating, and Josh and Ron moved to follow her.

"Your _mum_ is a pretty good cook!" She said a moment later, giggling when Ron blushed.

They left the little village and were soon walking on a trail through thick wilderness without another person in sight. The trail was rocky, and dusty, and constantly going up, and down, then back up. A few times they actually needed ropes and harnesses to climb up steep rocks. Ron peeled off the sweater Josh had given him and tied it around his waist, he was sweating lightly despite the air still being a little cool. The three of them chatted about anything and everything. His family, his friends, Hogwarts. Josh and Tony were genuinely curious about it all, and Ron found himself feeling less shy around them.

Tony smiled when Ron told her he had 5 brothers and 1 sister. "I know what thats like." She told him she was technically an only child, but she and her mother lived with her aunt and 9 cousins. "Back home, I share a room with like, 4 girls who are all younger than me."

"I finally got my own room a few years ago, though it's in the attic." He said. She laughed and told him she'd kill to get an attic to herself.

"So you don't have a dad?" Ron asked without thinking. Tony pursed her lips and gave him a hard look. Suddenly Hermione's voice filled Ron's head, telling him he had no tact and this was just so typicial.

But a moment later she turned her head away from him and shrugged. "No, never met him before. Too bad really, he's probably the one who made me a witch. The rest of my family are no-maj."

Josh never offered up anything about his family. This time Ron didn't ask.

They were both in something called the "Next leaders program". Certain students were chosen based on aptitude, extracurricular interests, and knowledge of foreign langues. They also worked as teaching assistants to some of the lower level classes and meant to act as guides to other students. The ultimate goal for NLP was to secure places in government, where they could hopefully make a difference in laws and attitudes regarding werewolves and similar groups. Ron told them it sounded kind of like being a prefect, but harder. They spent the next hour comparing prefect duties to NLP duties.

Tony spoke Spanish as well as French and was trying to learn Japanese. She often tutored students whose second laungege was English. Josh had basic training as a healer, and taught some lower level potions classes.

"I'm not that great at potions, I hope I don't end up with you as a teacher, that would be wierd." Ron told him.

"Well, you wouldn't be only older person there. I told you some students don't start here till there older." He replied. "I didn't get to start school 'till I was fifteen."

"What? and you're already teaching?" The ease Ron had finally started to feel around his new schoolmates was waning. They were both way smarter than him. Soon he'd take the classifications test and then they'ed know exactly how slow he was.

"Why'd you start so late?" He asked, trying to distract himself from his new anxiety.

But Josh didn't answer him. He gave Ron a sidelong glance, and then walked on ahead. Ron wondered if he'd hit on another sore spot unintentionally. They walked on in silence for while after that.

Tony stopped them once at a particularly beautiful spot in the trail, where the trees separated and you could see the mountains in the background.

"Lets get a photo, to remember your first trial of becoming a Guadalupe student." She insisted. She set the camera on a rock, ran back to stand next to them. "When everybody in frame says 'cheese' at the same time, it'll snap a picture." She explained.

"Why 'cheese'? That seems kind of-" Ron started to say before Tony cut him off by pulling him over Josh.

"Just say it and smile, silly."

He did. At the sound of all three of them saying the word, the camera snapped several pictures by it itself. Tony walked over and picked it up. "That's gonna be a keeper," She said with satisfaction as she put away the camera.

They walked all day into the evening, stopping occasionally to eat. They steadily climbed a higher and higher altitude. The sun had started to set when Tony suggested they stop and set up the tent. Ron silently screamed in relief, his feet had been killing him, but he hadn't wanted to be the one to ask if they could stop.

It was a magical tent, similar to the one his family used at the quidditch world cup. On the outside it looked barely big enouph to house a child. But on the inside, it had more bedrooms than they possible needed. Ron guessed about 30, but didn't bother to count. There was a central living area, with large plush couches and pillows arranged in a circle.

"They use this tent for club activities." Josh said as a way to explain the surplus of space. "So no need for us to cuddle up tonight." He smiled, and Ron felt his face and ears go pink. He put his head down and picked a random room to walk over and throw his things into. The rooms were small and basic. A bed, a rug, a nightstand, all of which were mismatched in style and various levels of shabbyness. He couldn't help but be reminded of home.

Josh and Tony both announced they were tired and going straight to bed. Ron stayed up only a little bit longer to write Hermione a letter. He couldn't send it off until he got to the school. But he wanted to write down that thing Josh had said about karate and classifications before he forgot it. He considered writing Harry, but quickly abandoned the idea. By now Harry knew that Ron had skipped out on him, and was probably furious with him over it.

Ron was also extremley tired, so as soon as he finished the letter and put it in his bag, he flopped onto the bed and was asleep in minutes.

* * *

 **AN: please leave reviews! Tell me what I could be doing better, because I feel like I could definatly be doing this better.**

 **This setting was partially inspired by Firewatch. I mean, the Rocky Mountains really is one of the best places to hide a magical school in America, I think. I also picked it because its far enouph away from Ilvermorny. It's also just an allround _gorgeous_ location. Google Coltor Bay village to see Ron's view from the cabin. **


	3. The school in the mountain

Ron awoke incredibly sore. His arms and legs felt like lead and they resisted every movement. This was the start of day number three. Yesterday, and the day before, they'd hiked from dawn to dusk, and boy did his body feel it.

The smell of food drifted towards him, and that was the tiny bit of motivation he needed. He slid out of bed and glanced at the clothes he'd thrown on the floor yesterday. After two days of hiking and sweating, they were kind of gross. He pulled fresh underwear and a new shirt from his bag and put them on whith the old pair of jeans he'd been wearing. He hoped this hike wouldn't take too much longer. He hadn't packed any other muggle clothes. He figured once he got his uniform, he wouldn't need them.

He found Tony bent over a temporary fire in the middle areah of the tent. A metal grait held up a cast iron pan on top of the flames. Eggs and bacon sizzled pleasantly. She had pushed the couches away and rolled up the center rug, presumebly to keep the whole tent from going up in flames.

"Good, I was just about to come and shake you. We need to be leaving in about ten minutes, and we might get there before the sun sets." She said, spilling eggs and bacon onto a plate. "How do you feel today?"

"Alright." He lied, still hoping he could prevent his new classmates from noticing how weak he was. They seemed unfazed from hiking so much, he wondered how often they did this, maybe that's why Antonia's legs looked like they could crush rocks.

She brightened. "Good! You know the other transfer we escorted a few days ago gave up by this point." She held the plate out to him and he took it.

"Oh, really?" He picked up the fork and took a bite. The food was messy looking, and had obviously been made in a rush, but it tasted amazing. "Are you and Josh escorting all the transfers?" he asked between bites.

"There are a few other teams, I think Sunny and Red are also out escorting a few transfers from Ilvermorny right now, They're in the NLP like me and Josh. But yeah, the guy was from some small school in Switzerland, I don't think any of this was what he was expecting. He slept on the floor in the cabin, so of course he got a rotten nights sleep, dragged his feet all day on the hike, making it take _forever_ " She rolled her eyes towarsd the ceiling. "And then he up and says he can't do it anymore, he wanted to go home." She threw her hands up, still clearly annoyed by the whole ordeal. "Waste of my time..." She murmured as she cleaned the pan with magic.

"Josh is waiting outside, grab your bag so I can pack up the tent." She said as soon as he finished his food.

Half way through the third day of hiking, Ron came to the realization that he'd spent several nights under the same roof with Tony and Josh, and didn't even know their last names. Tony and Josh had introduced themselves as just Antonia and Joshua, and Tony sighed her letter with a nickname. Did either of them even know what his last name was?

At Hogwarts surnames were important, and oftentimes replaced your firstname. Teachers of course used it as a formality. He was Mr. Weasley, which still sometimes made him want to turn around to see if his father had unespectidly shown up. But all of his brothers were Mr. Weasley as well, and on more than one occasion did the teacher addressing them have to specifically say _which_ Mr. Weasley they meant. Draco Malfoy used it as an insult, practically spitting it out whenever Ron had the misfortune of being spoken to by the ferret-faced prat. He could remember clearly, his first day of shcool, even before being sorted: _"Red hair and hand me down robes, you must be a **Weasley**."_ At Hogwarts, the name was either associated with his many succesful brothers or his long line of blood traiter ancestors. Either way, it was recognized and followed him everywhere. Accept here, apparently.

Ron wondered if this was one of those 'cultural differences' Hermione was talking about. It made it easy to talk about his friends without his new schoolmates realizing he was talking about _the_ Harry Potter. He wasn't entirely sure how well wizards in America kept up with politics in Briton. But they had to know about you-know-who and the baby that killed him, didn't they? He was called savior of the wizarding _world_ for a reason.

That line of thought made Ron realize another thing. Only a couple of months ago the Ministry had finally annouced to the public that Voldemort was back. Surely wizards over here have heard. He wondered if either Tony or Josh were worried, after all, it seemed obvious to Ron that Voldemort would not stop after he conquerd Europe. He thought about asking, but how exactly do you bring up a subject like that out of nowhere?

Several hours later, after walking along a wall of vertical rock for what felt like ages, Tony stopped them at a tiny cave opening. It went up to about Rons waist, and was a little wider than his shoulders.

"Alright, this is the entrance. It's a little tight so we go in single file, okay?" She said. Ron looked at her in disbelief. He'd have to practically crawl on his belly to get through. But she either didn't notice or ignored the look, and simply crouched down and began crawling into the hole. He looked to Josh, who only gestured for Ron to go next.

Ron would never have considered himself colostrophobic before. But now, with his stomach on the ground and solid walls of rock on either side and several tons of it above his head, he felt a sense of panic growing in the center of his chest and creeping into his limbs. His knee's, exposed through the rips in his jeans, sratched and scraped against small jagged rocks he couldnt see. But there was nothing to do except keep going forward. He wondered if maybe it was intentional that he was in the middle of his guides, without Josh behind him it would be tempting to back out. Perhaps the fear and discomfort had changed his perception of time, but he felt as if they'd crawled for ages before the tiny cave finally spit them back out.

He lifted his head to see a wide open area that was vauguly circular. Surrounded by tall walls of Rocky mountain rock that almost reached the clouds. There were squared buildings built into the rockwall, or was it building singular? Because it seemed to wrap all the way around in a solid strip. With the only section missing was where the cave opeing was. He looked up to see A bridge above the cave connected the ends. So it was a true circle. In the middle of the mountain building was a large courtyard, dotted with a few freestanding buildings. Ron recognised one glass tower as a greenhouse, another building could be an Aviary, and a few that looked like normal houses.

"This area in the middle is called the Breezeway." Tony said. "The building in the Rock is the main school building where the classes are held and the dormitories are located. This building right here-" She pointed to one of the free standing buildings close by. "-Is called the blue house, betcha can't guess why."

The house was a very bright, light blue color. It was two stories tall with woodpaneling, a white porch, and a porch swing. The ground around the house was carpeted by vivid purple flowers. To Ron, it didn't look like any building he would associate with school. It looked more like the residence of a newly wed couple, where the wife would wear a frilly white apron and lipstick. He almost exspected to see a pie cooling in the windowsill.

"And thats where we gotta take you to get you officially admitted. They're going to ask you where you'd prefer to stay, I think you should tell them you want to room with the NLP, since Josh is the only male right now and you'd have a whole dorm to yourself practically, with an attached bathroom. Otherwise your thrown in with everyone else, including those dreaded 11 year olds." She smiled, poking fun at his statement from a few days ago. "and you'd have to use the communal showers."

Ron wasn't sure about rooming up with Josh again after the cuddle comment. But a personal bathroom did sound better than a communal shower.

They entered The Blue House. The interior was painted the same robin egg blue and the floors were a whitewashed wood. There were several upholstered chairs and a large glass desk, piled with papers, discarded candy wrappers and several potted plants. To the left and behind the desk was a hallway, behind it to the right was a staircase.

"Great, I hope she didn't fall asleep, I'd rather not have to walk back to her room and look for her." Tony siad, crossing her arms and leaning to look down the hallway."

"I keep saying they really need to find her a replacemnet, or an assitant or something. Theres no way shes going to last untill the start of the school year." said Josh.

Ron was about to ask who they were waiting for and what made them such a horrible employee that suggested they were going to be fired before the school year started when a third voice from the hallway chimed in.

"Ye of little faith, I was just in the bathroom." A woman appeared from around the corner. She was short, brunnette, tan and the most pregnant woman Ron had ever seen. Her stomache was so large that it looked like it should cause her to fall forward, she did seem to be leaning back and waddleing as she stepped behind her desk.

"Hello, ." Tony greeted. "I wasn't calling you lazy, but you must get tired a lot these days."

"uh-huh, nice backpedaling. I assume you're here to admit one of the transfer students?" She looked at Ron, politely smiling. "Come here then."

She asked for Ron's full name, then found it on a list she'd dug up from her stack of papers. Then took his wand, writing down the wood, core, length and maker for their record. She handed his wand back and then stood up to walk around the desk, huffing quietly as she did.

"Time to take your vow. Please take a knee...oh, we need someone for you to say it to." She glanced up at Tony and Josh. "I guess you'll do, Tony, you know the script."

Tony walked over and took a knee in front of the woman, Ms. Cassidy, and held her hand out in the open air, waiting for Ron to take it.

Ron hesitated, he had not realized the vow he was required to take was going to be an _unbreakable_ vow. He had no plans of breaking it anyways. But the memory of the first time he had almost made one at the age of five was permanently seared into his brain. He couldn't remember anymore what is was the twins were trying to make him promise, but he remembered his father walking in and the chaos that followed. He'd never seen his father so angry in his entire life. It had scared Ron, despite not being the target of that anger. Fred and George got spanked, a form of discipline used so rarely in the Weasley household that he could count the number of instances on one hand. Later, while trying to calm down a very confused and upset Ron, his father had explained to him that he had been angry because he had been scared. The twins, out of naivety or recklessness or both, had put Ron's life at risk. He remebered that day as the first time he realized he could die, and that death was something even his father was afraid of.

Unbreakable vows were not to be taken lightly.

But he wasn't five, he was sixteen, and standing in a room with three people he barely knew who were looking at him exspectantly. After coming all this way, he really couldn't back out now. Tony's voice ran through his head, _waste of my time..._

He knelled in front of Ms. Cassidy, and grasped Tony's hand in his own. He kept his eyes fixated on their intertwined hands rather than look her in eye. He hoped she wouldn't notice how uncomfortable he was.

"Will you, Ronald, keep secret the lycanthropy status of every student of Guadalupe, past and present?" Tony asked, in a flat, practiced tone

Her dark hand contrasted with his own light skin, and she felt warm. He wondered if his father would be angry about this if he heard. Ron was nearly an adult though, he understood the promise he was making and the consequences.

"I will."

A rope of light twisted around their hands, he could feel it thrumming with magic. Was it legal for a school to do this to a student who was under seventeen? Is that why this detail was left out of the letters?

"Will you shield your fellow classmates from the opression and harm of Macusa, the Ministry, and any other government to the best of your abilities?" Tony continued in that same tone, as if to suggest that she wasn't asking for much at all.

"I will."

Another rope came forth from Cassidy's wand, wrapping around their hands once again. The strategist in him wondered why he was making all the life-risking promises with out being given anything in return. He made a decision quickly.

"Will you, Antonia, return me the same promise, and keep me from harm to the best of your ability?" Ron asked, finally meeting her eyes and willing himself to look calm.

Her eyesbrows shot up in surprise, and she was momentarily silent. Then her face broke into a mishevious smile. "I will." A third rope of light twisted around their hands.

"You've gone off script, do you both accept these terms?" Cassidy asked, eyeing Ron in a carefully neutral expression. They both nodded. "Then the vow is sealed. You will each feel a warning within your body when you are in danger of breaking your vow, this is to keep you from breaking it accidentally and dieing out of sheer ignorance." Said Cassidy, in a tone that suggested that she didn't really care about anyone who died from their own ignorance.

"Now then" she continued, sitting back down at her desk ackwardly and slow thanks to her stomache. "If you would take him back to the clinic, Josh, he can get his checkup and the three of you can go rest."

Josh nodded and made a motion for Ron to follow him, then walked past the desk and down the hallway. "Clinic?" Ron asked.

"Yeah, you have to get checked out by a healer before you can interact with anyone else. I guess they're trying to make sure no more diseases get in here besides lycanthropy. " Josh said without meeting his eyes. He stopped at a door with a little healer witch character sign. The character had a blonde shoulderlength hair and Rosy cheecks. The healer Ron met inside the door looked nothing like her.

He was a short chubby man with thining dark hair. The "clinic" as it turned out was a small room with a single hospital bed in it, lined with several cabinets and a countertop. The walls were painted grass green, which gave Ron's eyes a nice break from the blue. He's assumed that the infermory in a school like this would've been bigger, considering that they would have to look after most of the school after everyfull moon. Of course, maybe they had another infermory somewhere else and this one was just for newcomers like him.

The check up was uncomfortable. He had to strip down to his boxers so that the healer could look him over. Ron felt embarrassed, but the healer mostly seemed bored, looking him over like an inanomite object and marking things down on a clipboard. Ron supposed he should be glad he still had his underwear on. He'd been walking for three days without a shower and he was very aware of what he smelled like.

He was wieghed and measured. The healer pinched a small amount of fat on Ron's stomach and measured that too. Then the healer asked for Rons hand, Ron obeyed and held out his hand curiously. The healer stabbed his palm with what looked to be a sowing needle. Ron cried out in surprise at the sudden pain, but the healer held his hand in place. He produced a small empty vile, then proceded to squeeze Ron's blood into the vile with the same bored look on his face. He wordlessly healed the wound and the pain disapeared before Ron could even process it.

Capping the vile and setting it on the counter, the healer said "You may get dressed now." Then started rumiging around in a drawer near him. Ron had only gotten his jeans back on when he had another suprise pain, this time in the arm.

The healer had poked him with another needle, but this one was attached to a small vile of milk-white liqued. There was a handle on the end, that the healer pushed to make the liqued go into his body through the needle. It was horrifying, like some tool a muggle doctor would use. Before Ron could ask the healer what the hell he was doing, he was being shoved out of the room with his shirt and shoes still off.

"Healer Braxon has pretty awful bedside manner, and he's not even the worst healer here." Josh said. He stood with his back against the wall, head down and hands in his pockets. He didn't look back up untill Ron had pulled his shirt back on.

"Ready then?" He turned and led the way back down the hall.

"Everything's taken care of then, would you prefer to room with the NLP or in the regular student dormitory?" The pregnant lady asked.

"Oh, erm, I guess I'll stay with them." He looked over at Tony and Josh. She made one last mark on her paper then sent it flying away.

"Alright, you may go now."

"Thank God!" Antonia said as they stepped out of The Blue House. "I need a shower and a nap." She stretched her arms over her head, letting her palms rest on the back of her neck.

"Me too," said Josh. "I can't beleive we have to do it all over again in a few days." Antonia groaned. "Don't remind me..." They walked through a pair of doors in the side of the mountain. Ron noticed that the windows in the rock wall apeared to be a reflective black. But once on the other side, he could see through to the breezeway.

The ceiling was high and the hallways were wide but mostly empty. It reminded him a lot of Hogwarts, with walls of reddish rock instead of grey stones. The windows were more contemporary than those of the old castle, and there was a lack of suites of armor, ghosts, and talkitive paintings. But it still felt distintcly like _school_. There were a few students out and about, but they were few and far between. All wore muggle clothes and none seemed in a big hurray.

"These are the dormitories." Antonia said after they turned down a hallway. There were two tall doors across from each other. A staircase next to each leading up to a landing with another two doors.

"Our's are up the stairs. We're above them because we're _special_." She said sarcastically and flipped her hair, which was distinctly more frizzy after sleeping in a tent for days. "Anyways, no offense, my job with you is over, I'm gunna go bathe." And with that she started up the stairs and turned left into what Ron could only guess was the girls dormitry.

Josh led Ron through the door opposite. The room was rectanguler with six beds lineing each wall. It was obvious that only one was used. Josh's bed was unmade, and the dresser next to it was piled with books and papers. It was a lot of space, larger than the Gryffindor dormitry by far, but with only one occupant, it felt somewhat detached. Ron picked a random bed on the wall across from Josh and claimed it.

He let Josh shower first, since it was his room, and took the moment alone to add to the letter he'd written Hermione The day before yesterday. He wanted to tell her about the needle the Healer had used to see if she knew anything about it. To Ron it definitly looked like a muggle tool.

He hesitated about writing in the part about the unbreakable vow. Somehow it seemed like somthing Guadalupe wanted to keep secret. But in the end he told her about it anyway. Keeping secrets from Hermione was usually pointless, she was too perceptive, and she'd probably get angry at him when she found out he kept the truth from her.

He set the letter down when he finished and waited for Josh to come out so he could ask about how to send it. He wondered what she was doing now, and what was Harry doing now? He missed his friends.

* * *

 **AN:** **sorry that this chapter felt really boring. Soon I wanna get to the plot but for now I have to describe the setting and the new characters all while not taking the attention away from Ron, who is suppose to be the main character here. I have so many cool ideas for the middle of this story, I just need to get there, without rushing the important stuff in the beginning.**


	4. A lot of Sodding Tests

**AN: I just realized that in the first chapter I still had [school name] written in place of the _actual_ school name from way back when I didn't know what I wanted to call the school. Good lord guys someone should have told me, that's embarrassing. Goes to show I can proof read a chapter 30 times and still miss something so glaringly obvious.**

* * *

"Hey." Something gently shook Ron's body by his shoulder. He tried to respond but through the haze of sleep it came out as a mumble.

"Hey, Ron."

Ron blinked his eyes open to see Josh quickly retracting his hand. "Sorry to wake you, but it is the middle of the afternoon now, and I'm about to go do some laundry, and uh, I know you need to do some too..." He trailed off, looking away at something else.

"Laundry?" He asked, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

"Yeah, you know, when you make your dirty clothes not dirty? We usually do it together, makes it less boring."

His brain was still slow and confused. "You have to do that yourself?"

"Well, we don't have pukwudgies or house elves here, so yeah. We get to do it." Josh had already moved away from his bedside. "I mean, you could stay in here and do it by yourself if you'd prefer it. The wash basin in the bathroom closet."

Ron had never washed his own clothes once in his entire life. His mum was very particular about how anything was cleaned, and usually shoo'd her children away if they tried to help. They rarely did it to her standards and just got in the way. At Hogwarts, he usually threw his clothes on the floor when he was done with them and they would appear the next morning pristine and folded in his trunk. He'd never even thought about it before, but it must have been the house elves cleaning the students clothing and putting them back each night. He was afraid he wouldn't figure out how to do it and have to ask for help, or somehow ruin his clothes. If he watched the others do it, maybe he could figure it out before they noticed how clueless he was.

"No..er, l'll come. Just give me a second." Last night he'd slept in just his boxers, being completely out of clean clothes. "Um, when am I suppose to get my uniform? I don't really have anything left..."

Josh laughed. "You took Tony's warning way too seriously, she might have said pack lightly but you could have done with a few days more. I'll lend you something." Ron didn't say anything, he didn't want to admit he really didn't have any other clothes. There was a collection of hand-me-downs in his room back home, but few of them fit since his last few growth spurts. Josh rummaged around in his dresser for a few minutes before tossing a shirt and pair of shorts towards Ron.

"We're heading to Jericho's room, hes got more space than we do in the dormitories. He's in the NLP too, but he can't room with us, and you'll see why." Josh explained. Picking up a basket of his own clothes and tucking it under his arm. "I'll be outside," and he quickly walked through the door before Ron could say anything else.

Josh was shorter than Ron but a little stockier. The tan shorts he gave him were a little loose in the waste, but that could be fixed with a belt. The black shirt, decorated with some band name that Ron didn't recognize, fell past his waste. In all, it wasn't the worst he'd looked in someone else clothes before.

Josh led him to a tall door not too far from the dormitories. Balancing his basket of clothes against his side, he used his free hand to knock rapidly on the door. It swung open and Ron was surprised to see a boy almost as large as the door. If Ron hadn't known of Hagrid's and Madame Maxine's half-giant status he might not have recognized this boy as one. But he had to be. He was at least ten feet tall and broad shouldered. Ron thought he looked very much like a young Hagrid, if Hagrid had been tan and dirty blonde. He also wore nicer, muggle style clothes. Despite the large frame and general roughness, he had a young, kind face.

"Hey Josh, come in."

"Hey Jericho, This is Ron." Ron waved polity and Jericho nodded to him, before moving out of the door way to let them inside.

The furniture in the room was huge. In the corner was a bed nearly as tall as his elbow and wide enouph for six people, a wardrobe stood next to it almost fifteen feet tall. There was another fake window, which was wide and pooled the whole room up with magically created sunlight. on the windowsill were several potted plants all lined up. Ron wondered if the fake sunlight actually helped the plants grow. There was a shelf that looked to be built out of crates stacked on top of one another, filled to the edges with records, and a record player squeezed in among them. On the other side of the room was a table and chair set to match the bed and out on the surface of that table were several regular sized books and paper next to an over sized coffee mug, which billowed tasty smelling steam into the air. Jericho sat down at the table, presumably continuing some work they'd interrupted him from.

"Already did all my own laundry, so you guys can have at it." He said before looking back down at his book.

In the center of the room were a couple of large basins where Antonia and a tall blonde girl were standing and chatting. "Oh, _your_ back." Josh said in a sarcastically irate tone to the blonde girl as they approached. Her long light colored hair was pulled back in a ponytail, which swished when she turned to respond to him. "Yeah, nice to see you too."

"Hey boys." Antonia greeted them cheerfully. "Guess what? No more transfers! The last few have dropped out, so we needn't leave again the rest of the summer." She wore a blue tank top with jean shorts today. Peaking out from her shirt strap was a circular scar that wrapped around her shoulder. It was bright white against her skin, and looked to be made up of several puncture marks stretched with age. Ron realized it must have been from when she was bit, and quickly adverted his eyes.

"Oh, thank god." Josh said, dumping his basket unceremoniously into the tub. Ron followed suit with his own few outfits. He momentarily felt odd about his underwear being out in the open for all these strangers to see. But nobody else seemed to have an issue, and he tried not to notice the bright colored, lacy knickers and bras floating around on the water.

"Those french bastards think they're too good for us." The blonde girl said. "But honestly I ain't complaining."

"Beauxbatons?" Ron asked. The blonde girl's gaze snapped over to him. She had icy blue eyes, which examined with a curious intensity. She scanned his borrowed outfit, and his scared arms just as Tony had done. But she was a bit more obvious about it, and knit her brows as if she was trying to figure out what they were. She squared her shoulders up defensively before looking him in the eye again. It was rare the Ron encountered girls who were tall enouph to look straight in eye without tilting his head down. He tried not to show how self-consciousnesses he felt.

"This is Ron, from Hogwarts." Antonia said, "And this is Sunny." She indicated her friend. Sunny had a rhinestone S necklace around her neck, and her eyelids and lips were a matching light pink. She was pretty, like Tony, but unlike Tony she obviously put effort into her appearance. Even her clothes, a tight fitting grey blouse with a low neckline and bright yellow shorts, made her seem high-maintenance.

"Yeah, they were from Beauxbatons. Why?" Sunny asked, sounding somewhat testy.

"Well, er, they are pretty snobbish," Ron offered. "A bunch of them came to Hogwarts for the Triwizard tournament a few years ago. Apparently they eat off gold plates, kept making faces at the ones we used. They also wore these silk robes and complained about how cold it was."

Antonia giggled, "Really? So like... nobody told them that England was cold?"

Ron shrugged. Sunny giggled too, whatever tension she was holding onto evaporated. "Fucken hell,Good thing they didn't come here then, they probably say it was too hot. By the way, I'm a werewolf." Sunny said, looking at Ron.

"Oh, uh-" Ron stammered a moment, caught off guard.

"I'm saying that because until I say it myself, Josh and Tony can't talk about me being a werewolf in front of you without breaking their vows. Makes it kind of annoying to have a normal conversation around here, since it's just part of our life. Don't want anyone to kill over for accidentally reminding me to take my wolfbane in front of the newbies." She shrugged and then turned away from him and looked towards Antonia. "So you think they dropped out after finding out they had to hike?"

"I think a lot of European transfers are backing out because of whats going down in England." Antonia said in an even tone, glancing Ron's way. "That evil wizard, who they think is back now, he recruited a lot of werewolves last time..." A short but heavy silence settled.

"Huh, I'd forgotten all about that." Josh said.

Antonia looked at him incredulously.

"Things were pretty busy last year." Josh answered in defense.

All at once Sunny looked agitated again. "So what, they think we're going to be on his side? That we're dangerous or something? What bullshit, the fuck would any of us want to do with some random motherfucker across the ocean with a god complex?" Ron blanched, he'd never heard anyone talk about Voldemort in such a casual, offhand way. He wasn't use girls who said fuck so much either.

Antonia shrugged. "Maybe, or maybe they really didn't want to make the hike. Anyways," She turned to Ron "Mrs. Renaissance also let me know that you will start your classifications testing tomorrow, so one of us will be escorting you to the proper classroom at 9am, be ready, okay?" Ron just nodded, still feeling a little put. None of them had any idea about the reality of living in fear of war was like. He figured he shouldn't be too shocked, they were all so far separated from his country, without the threat of Voldemort breathing down their necks, it was probably easy to forget about it in favor of classwork, and friends. He wished he could forget about it, at least for a few moments a day, or before going to sleep.

"Does anyone know if Red or Dawn are showing up? I'd like to start already." Antonia asked, pulling a wand out of her back pocket.

"Dawn works until like, six, so she's not coming." Sunny said.

"And I haven't seen Red since morning, hiking, I think." Jericho offered.

"So probably no, then." Antonia said, before tapping her wand on the basin and murmuring a spell. The wet clothes started to slosh around by themselves, creating soap suds and little bubbles that floated into the air and reflected false light from the windows.

"God, we just got back from a hike, I really don't get Red's obsession with exercise." Sunny said, then sat down on the ground with her legs crossed.

"Speaking of which, how were the transfers from Ilvermorny? Know any of them?" Joshed asked.

Sunny screwed up her face like she could smell something nasty. "No, they're younger than me, and fucking annoying too. That's why I didn't mention the fact that they could room with us. I honestly didn't want them too."

"Annoying how?"

"Oh just, kind of acting entitled, you know? Like, this one dude, I told him I use to be in Ilvermorny before I was bit, ya'know, and he asked me if it was hard to leave such a good school and come here instead. I wanted to fucking hit him."

Antonia snorted disapprovingly, but made no further comment. After several minutes of the clothes sloshing around, she said another spell and clothing lines appeared crisscrossing around their half of the room. She then set the clothes to start magically hanging themselves. Ron felt relived again that he hadn't really had to do any work so that nobody ever noticed how inexperienced he was. It was all pretty easy with Tony knowing the magic. He wondered how long it took muggles to wash their clothes.

"We should get lunch while it drys, I'm starving." Sunny said, standing up. Ron was instantly reminded of his own hunger, he hadn't eaten breakfast that day which was a rare occurrence for him. The rest of the group agreed, accept Jericho, who was still working on homework.

The dining hall was in general less fancy than Hogwarts with no enchanted ceiling. There was a single long table in the center, and several smaller circular tables around it. It seemed mostly empty at the moment, with only a few small groups of students here and there. Just like at Hogwarts, there was a table just for teachers at one end at the moment only three sat there. One was a pale dark haired man that instantly reminded Ron of Snape. Then there was an older women with silver streaking her long black hair, and a rather ordinary brown haired man.

Acquiring food was a little bit different too. It did not simply appear for everyone all at once, rather, you had to state your name to the table, and the after a moment, your food appeared. Antonia demonstrated this before Ron actually believed her.

"Supposedly, the food is crafted to whatever your body needs, which they figure out from regular blood samples." She said after a plate of steak, sweet potatoes and a banana popped up. "Sometimes that ends up being odd combination like that...here you try, I'll wait, you are eating with us right?" Ron nodded, he didn't exactly know where else he'd be going. He was a little disappointed that he'd be stuck eating only one thing that the table decided to give him. He thought Hogwarts buffet styled meals were much better. Could he even get seconds here?

Also different from Hogwarts, Guadalupe allowed it's students to eat outside for every meal except Supper. Once Antonia, Josh and Sunny all had their food, they lead him to a shady spot in the breezeway.

They chatted amicably for a while, so Ron asked what he been meaning to ask ever since he arrived.

"Only Aetius can send mail all the way over there, you can request him from The Blue House, and as long as he isn't already on a job she'll get him for you. I'd say make sure you write to everyone at once, because he wont want to make more than one trip every few weeks or so." Josh said.

"Right, well I'd like to go do that, so... see you later?" He said, hoping this wasn't considered rude.

Josh nodded. "Sure, we'll take that plate back for you so you can leave it."

Back in the dorm alone, Ron quickly wrote a brief letter to his parents, telling them a little about the school, that he was enjoying himself and everything was peaceful (as in, safe). Then added a few more lines to his increasingly long letter to Hermione.

 _Found out they don't have house elves here, which I know you'll be happy about. I just did my own laundry for the first time in my life! It wasn't so bad. I might as well buy a journal and send it to you, considering how long this letter is getting. I asked the eagle to wait around until you wrote back, since a normal owl can't deliver for you. This place is great, but I miss you and Harry._

There, that was the last time he was going to modify the same letter. It was looking quite messy. The paper was crinkled and had been folded several times over. There was a dirt outlined footprint from when it fell out of his bag and he'd accidentally stepped on it, and the top corner was ripped a tiny bit. Well, it was readable at least.

Once at the Blue House, gave him a critical once over before calling Aetius. The giant bird swooped in through the open window as if it had been waiting for the summons. "Can you wait around the Burrow for a bit after you deliver these? In case anyone else has a letter for me? I'm pretty sure your the only one they know who could deliver them." Aetius just eyed Ron, which he didn't really know if that was a yes or no, but thanked the big bird anyways. As soon as the letters were secured Aetius took off through the window. Ron turned to leave, feeling Cassidy's eyes on his back all the way out the door.

* * *

The women who gave Ron his first test was older, with streaks of grey going through long silky black hair. She eyed him as he walked into the classroom. Ron was starting to wonder why every new person he met here stared at him like they were expecting him to sprout a second head. It was a little unnerving. But unlike the desk lady in the Blue House, This woman only examined him for a moment, before telling him he could take a seat.

"The other transfers should be here soon. We'll start the test after everyone's arrived." She said in an even but commanding tone. She had a polite smile when she spoke, but as soon as she was finished, her face went back into a hard frown.

Ron quickly took a seat in the back right corner, and stared at the wall. Feeling awkward and self conscious as ever. He wasn't sure how much time passed, but eventually several other students arrived. They looked apprehensively around the room before all choosing seats themselves.

"This test is the first of many that you will taking across the next few weeks. It covers several subjects, and the material ranges from what you would have learned in your first year all the way to advanced concepts that you may not even encounter in your seventh. You are not expected to know everything, you will not even be receiving a grade on these. They are simply for us to find out where you stand in our own curriculum, any questions?"

The room was silent.

"Then we may begin." She waived her wand and the tests appeared before each of them as well as a quill and ink bottle.

* * *

Hermione was sat at the kitchen table in the Burrow. Mrs. Weasley, having finished the cooking early without the extra mouths to feed, was sitting down, drinking tea and getting a head start on her Christmas knitting. Mr. Weasley was already off to work, and Ginny was upstairs in bed, sleeping in as long as her mother allowed.

Hermione had arrived just a few days previous. Harry was not there yet, and without Ron, the place she usually associated with activity and chaos was quite. She did what she usually did when there was nothing better to do, reading and research.

It had bothered her a lot when she wasn't able to find any information on Guadalupe besides the name of the headmistress. There just weren't many books in Flourish and Blotts about American political climate or history. The Daily Profit didn't mention it in their archives either, except for the small paragraph in an article about their own country's policy on werewolves, referencing the fact that Dumbledore supported the school, and that Congress did not.

So she had looked to see if the main newspaper in America would mail subscriptions abroad. It was called the Oracle's Dispatch and they did, for an extra galleon more than what she paid for the Prophet. Hermione reluctantly subscribed, but it didn't give her what she really wanted. Still, it might be good to keep up with events in the country that was hosting Ron for a year.

She'd gotten the first Dispatch today. But it had nothing of any real interest to her. She also noted that there was absolutely no mention of Voldemort. Perhaps their government was keeping quite, trying not to cause a panic. It wasn't too hard to believe after what the ministry had done.

She was pulled suddenly from her thoughts by an insistent tapping on the window. She glanced up to see a large bald eagle outside the kitchen window, glaring at her impatiently. She quickly hopped up to let it in. The bird soared in and landed on the table.

"Oh, those must be from Ronald, Good, I was hoping he'd still be able to write. Though he probably won't write often enouph as usual." Mrs. Weasley said with a smile on her face as she untied the bundle of envelopes from the birds foot.

Mrs. Weasley had told Hermione about Aetius, the bird that had suddenly appeared in her kitchen one morning, frighting her terribly. Hermione had to admit the bird was somewhat intimidating even when you were expecting it. Mrs. Weasley handed her the envelope addressed to her and opened the other. Aetius took a perch on one of the empty chairs.

The letter looked rather messy. Hermione assumed he had finished and then added to it more than once over the last week. The system of classifying students was fascinating. Of course if students came in at varying ages then the system at Hogwarts wouldn't work. The karate analogy was quit impressive, she suspected he probably copied it word for word from whoever had tried to explain it to him that way. Which made Hermione wonder if American wizards were more familiar and open to muggle culture. The bit about last names being so unimportant to them confirmed that they probably didn't have a "sacred 28". She knew they still didn't like muggles. Rappaport's law and the history surrounding it made that clear enouph. But it was obvious to her that their prejudice worked differently, and If they didn't like muggles, did that extend to muggle-borns?

Partway through reading her letter, Mrs. Weasley had left and come back downstairs with Ron's broom wrapped tightly in brown paper. "I wasn't sure if I really needed to wrap it, the thing is made for flying so I don't see it getting damaged easily on the trip, still, better to be cautious, It's probably his most priced possession right now." she said laughing a little.

Hermione smiled back. It was obvious how proud of her youngest son she was. She glanced down at the last part. "Oh, he's going to stay here till a write him back." She stood quickly and ran up the stairs.

Ginny groaned from the bed and turned towards the wall at Hermione's sudden intrusion. Maybe she would normally feel bad for disturbing her roommate, but she was too distracted by her thoughts. She rummaged through her bags frantically searching for her journals. Ron had meant it as a joke, but Hermione thought it was an excellent idea. After all, being separated and only communicating every few weeks meant that they would have more to say when they wrote, a journal would help organize it all in one place. Ron would also be less likely to lose or damage the letter before he managed to send it off if it was safely be tucked away between two covers.

Hermione always kept several empty notebooks on hand for whatever information she wanted to get down, for classes or her own research projects. She liked being able to look back on her process of figuring out a difficult spell, like the DA's galleons last year, as a fond memory and nice reminder of her own capability when she started to doubt herself.

She found two. One was a cheaper, teal colored ringed book that she'd bought in a muggle convenience store. The other was thicker and leather bound, but had a few pages already written on with few random rune translations she'd done as practice. After a moment of thought, she tore the translations out and started writing her letter to Ron, with the date at the top of the page for posterity.

* * *

The tests continued on for two weeks. He would arrive to the same classroom at the same time. After the first day, The dark haired woman never said anything. She just made their tests appear once everyone was in the room.

For several days they only did written tests, then later they did practical tests. These made Ron nervous as he had to perform in front of every other student. All of them were between fifteen and seventeen and most seemed on track for their education level.

He did okay on most subjects. When it was time to demonstrate defense spells, he was proud to realize he was much better than any of them. A little voice in the back of his head said that was all because of Harry's talent and teaching ability, and that credit for his skill didn't really belong to him. He smothered that voice after he managed to produce a patronus, to the surprise of everyone in the room. Several other students reached there hands out to touch the Jack Russel as it ran around about, barking and leaping and wagging its little tail.

"I didn't know The patronus charm was a part of Hogwarts curriculum." The woman leading them said, eyeing Ron in what he thought was an accusatory way.

"It's not, I just, uh, learned it on my own." A complete lie, but she seemed to accept his answer and moved on.

All in all, it wasn't as bad as Ron had thought it was going to be. The actual testing only lasted a couple hours a day, and he was free to spend the rest of the time doing whatever he wanted, seeing as he had no classes yet. Today would be the final day of tests. But the questions on this one were weird. It had nothing to do with any subject he'd ever taken, but all asking personal details about himself. They were simple yes or no answers, but many of them made him extremely uncomfortable.

 _In the past month, you... Have had nightmares about a certain situation or thought about it when you did not want to? Were constantly on guard, watchful, or easily startled? Felt numb or detached from others, activities, or your surroundings?_

He had no idea if there was a right or wrong answer, glancing around the room, he saw the other students also looked confused. It was a short test overall, but by the end of it he felt like his privacy had been violated. When all the tests were handed in, The dark haired women handed them back a small stack of papers.

"These are the results from every test except for the one you took today." She said. "You may give them a look over before we call you each to the Blue House to sit with you one on one and decide on your schedule. This will wait until after the full moon, of course." Ron snapped his head up, there had been no talk of the full moon since he'd gotten here, and he hadn't dared ask.

The other transfers all seemed curious too. They stared, waiting for her to say something more, but she didn't. She simply turned away from them as if to gather her things.

The door opened suddenly, and Ron turned to see the desk lady from the Blue House peaking her head through.

"Ms. Renaissance, you have a floo call waiting in the Blue House, do you want me to tell him to come back later?"

A sudden but short lived murmuring broke out among the transfers. For the past couple weeks, none of them had realized it was the headmistress herself who was evaluating them. Ron was glad he hadn't known, he might have lost his nerve even more than he had.

"That fine Cassidy, we just finished here. You may all go now." She said and promptly left with Ms. Cassidy.

Ron went to go find Antonia, who had promised to help him interpret his results. She was where she usually was, in the boy's dormitory, which was much more peaceful than the girl's, studying. Josh was nowhere to be found.

"You got your results?" She asked as soon as she saw him enter the room. "Le'mme see!" she hopped up from her lazy position on one of unoccupied beds. He handed over his results and anxiously watched her face. This would be the moment she figured out how dense he was. Over the past couple weeks, he'd felt himself shift from someone she and Josh knew because of circumstances and into a possible friend. At least he felt like they were his friends, not as close as he was with Harry or Hermione, but that was expected.

"You didn't tell me it was your headmistress who was testing me everyday." He said, sitting on the bed opposite to her.

"Oh? Sorry, I guess I didn't think it was that important. I think she wanted to get to know you all as soon as possible. Normally she doesn't really teach..." Antonia said without looking up from the papers.

"Completely on track for Charms, Transfiguration, and Potions." She said shuffling through the stack. "You got better than average in Defense Against Dark Creatures and Defense Against Dark Wizards. I know you usually combine those into one class over there, so that's really good." Ron could feel relief seep into his muscles. "Slightly behind on Astronomy and Herbology... and, um, wow." She said, her eyebrows knit in confusion at the paper.

"What?" His anxiety immediately came back.

"You didn't get a grade in C.O.N.P" she looked back up at him, obviously confused.

"Comp?"

"Culture of Non Magical Peoples." She supplied.

"Oh, muggle studies." He felt a little better, how could anyone expect him to know a subject he didn't even study?

"Ehk, I hate that word, _muggle_. But yeah, you didn't get any classification, meaning you didn't even know enouph in the subject to get grade one. Do you sleep through every single class?"

"I don't take Muggle Studies."

Antonia looked shocked. "Its...not required?"

"No, its an extra curricular."

Antonia's eyes widened and her lips parted. She was quite a moment before she spoke. "...So your telling me you don't even know what a microwave is?" She got her answer when Ron only stared back at her.

"Wow! Sorry, I guess this is my first big culture shock. Here, C.O.N.P is compulsory, which is why you were tested on it."

"Is it?" Ron asked, only now realizing he hadn't encountered any questions about Divination or Care of Magical Creatures.

Antonia nodded, "You can't be expected to successfully masquerade among the no-maj if you don't know anything about them. If they try to talk to you about baseball and all you have to say is 'Whats baseball?' they're gunna look at you like your insane. " She looked back down at the papers. "So what about History of Magic? Is that not required either?"

"Oh it is, I actually do sleep in that class." This made Antonia burst out giggling, which infected Ron and he laughed too. It was nice, he didn't feel judged for his academic weaknesses in this moment. He knew he was going to have to find a way to catch up in muggle studies, since he'd be taking it for the next year apparently, and it sucked that he was behind in two other subjects as well. But that could wait for another day.

* * *

 **An: I don't have a good excuse for why this took so long, writing is hard. Like I was thinking about this story every day and trying to work on it just as much, but it just took so long before it started looking like a real chapter.**

 **Now I'm going back to edit some of the previous chapters and see if I can spot any more really obvious issues. I had to go back and change "Mrs. Cassidy" to "Ms. Cassidy" because I only just remembered there's a difference. Again, writing is hard.**


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